New England Dispatches

Man kills himself while being served foreclosure papers / Inmates package potatoes to help feed needy families / With winning margin of one, councilor is happy she voted ... and more news from around the state.

Police believe a man in Rhode Island barricaded himself in his home, set it on fire and then killed himself after being served with foreclosure papers.

Warwick Police Capt. Joseph Coffey said authorities responded to a report of gunshots and fire at home on Greylawn Avenue on Monday morning. A constable attempting to serve the foreclosure papers heard the shots after the resident locked the door and refused to allow anyone in.

Firefighters who extinguished the fire found a man’s body inside. His identity hasn’t been released. An investigation is ongoing.

SPRINGFIELD, Vt.

Man short on truck room put child in a toolbox, police say

Police say a New Hampshire man is accused of putting one of his children in a truck’s tool box during a drive to Vermont.

Russell Johnson of Bradford was cited last week for cruelty by a person having custody over another.

Springfield, Vt., police said in a news release that Johnson had picked up his three children while driving a single-bench pickup truck. One of the children was put in the tool box that spans the bed of the pickup while going from Bradford to Springfield, nearly 40 miles.

No further information was provided about the age or gender of the child.

LEBANON, N.H.

Hospital gets grant to lower rate of premature deliveries

The obstetrics department at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is getting a $10,000 grant to implement a model designed to decrease the rate of premature deliveries.

The hospital has been chosen by the March of Dimes as a project site for its CenteringPregnancy model, which officials say has been shown to increase parents’ satisfaction with prenatal care and readiness for labor and birth.

Under the model, women in similar stages of pregnancy meet on a regular basis for social support and educational discussion sessions.

WINDSOR, Vt.

Inmates package potatoes to help feed needy families

Some Vermont prison inmates are helping needy families get more to eat on Thanksgiving by packaging potatoes at the Windsor prison.

Inmates at the Southeast State Correctional Facility in Windsor have been cleaning up surplus potatoes as part of the Salvation Farms program.

Without the inmates, the potatoes might have been plowed back into the ground, but now they will be distributed to needy families in southeastern Vermont through the Vermont Foodbank’s network of food shelves.

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